My Great Uncle Roger Briottet died early this summer, and here in London where he lived, I miss him acutely, his wonderful humor and stories and his fantastic humanity and kindness. One of the life stories he would recount was of spending an uncomfortable night in the colosseum, Rome because he accidentally got locked in as a young boy. This illustration 'Rome' by Miroslav Sasek (1960), makes me laugh and remember.
I thought of Roger today and found him on Facebook, but clearly he never used it much. So sad to see that he had died. I remember him very fondly from my days at Amnesty International. We had a complicated staff dispute in the early 80s at a time when he was on the Board of the British Section. He was so very kind and supportive to me and my colleague Joy Turner and we might not have stood our ground without his advice and support. What a lovely man - so brave, wise and generous. I'm sad that I've missed telling him how very grateful we were to him. Lindsay
ReplyDeleteThank you for leaving this message Lindsay, I miss him so much, just knowing he was there keeping an eye on what I was up to and being so supportive.
DeleteOnly just seen this, Hazel. Your name is familiar to me: we’re you at AI? We badly need such good men as Roget and my late husband Eric (and women too, naturally). How did you know Roger?
DeleteHello Lindsay He was my great uncle.
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